Research Catalog

Title

Frederick Wiseman / edited by Joshua Siegel and Marie-Christine de Navacelle.

Publication

New York : Museum of Modern Art ; London : Thames & Hudson [distributor] : New York, N.Y. : D.A.P. [distributor], 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Siegel, Joshua.
• Navacelle, Marie-Christine de.
• Delbanco, Andrew, 1952-
• Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)

Description

159 p. : ill. (some col.); 21 x 24 cm.

Summary

"For over four decades, from his landmark Titicut Follies (1967) to his recent La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) and forthcoming Boxing Gym (2010), Frederick Wiseman (born 1930) has used a lightweight 16mm camera and portable sound equipment to study human behavior in all its unpredictable manifestations, particularly as it responds to institutional or regimented settings or to democracy at work. Combining epic narrative with intimate portraiture, Wiseman's films constitute a grand panorama of modern life, a kind of modern-day comédie humaine. While he manages to intrude only minimally on the lives of his subjects, his sensitive eye, lawyerly skepticism and storytelling impulses produce imaginative truth. Wiseman has also worked in the theater, directing acclaimed adaptations of Beckett and Pirandello. His stage and film productions La Dernière Lettre (The Last Letter), based on Vassily Grossman's epic novel Life and Fate, starred Catherine Samie, doyenne of the Comédie-Française and a contributor to this book. Frederick Wiseman, the first publication in English to provide a comprehensive overview of Wiseman's career to date, includes essays by eminent observers on both sides of the Atlantic, including writers, critics, filmmakers, actors and Wiseman himself. Illustrated with stills from his films, this volume offers a compelling portrait of Frederick Wiseman as one of the world's most innovative, fearless and influential filmmakers, as well as an accomplished theater director." -- Publisher's description.

Subject

• Wiseman, Frederick > Criticism and interpretation
• Wiseman, Frederick > Exhibitions

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• Exhibition catalogs
• Exhibition catalogs.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

Un certain regard / Marie-Christine de Navacelle -- Inconclusion / Josh Siegel -- A sketch of a life / Frederick Wiseman -- Imagination alive imagine / Christopher Ricks -- The tawdry gruesomeness of reality / Errol Morris -- In memory of us all : some scenes out of Wiseman / William T. Vollmann -- Learning from Wiseman / Andrew Delbanco -- Comfort for the tough-minded / David Denby -- Interview with Catherine Samie / Marie-Christine de Navacelle -- A great book of instances / Geoffrey O'Brien -- Near death/near life / Jay Neugeboren -- The ties that bind / Pierre Legendre -- Epilogue / Frederick Wiseman -- List of works.

ISBN

• 9780870707919 (pbk.)
• 0870707914 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 1045657520
• SCSB-11416808

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library